In his discussion of "The Four Forms of Government, Plato proceeds to compare the three "inferior" systems to each other. His goal is to compare the most just with the most unjust and then to compare the happiness or unhappiness of the man that lives under justice or injustice. This is his purpose- to discover whether it is better to pursue justice or injustice. He starts with the overall picture of each form- the state- and then proceeds to the individual. First oligarchy and the oligarchic man are considered, then democracy and the democratic man, and finally tyranny and the tyrant. This is the overall plan of this section.

The first topic considered is how an aristocracy progresses to an oligarchy. "Clearly, all political changes originate in divisions of the actual governing power, a government which is united, however small, cannot be moved." Only when there is division...